My earliest gardening memory is my Opa’s vegetable garden. My grandparents lived in Holland, in a post-war housing estate. The terrace houses were built back to back, with gardens on either side and an access way through the middle. The fences were all 4 ft chicken wire fences, no tall fences to cast shade or breed mistrust between neighbours.

As a youngster from a concrete jungle, the openness and space impressed me. Opa was an old-fashioned gardener, a rigorous weeder, very handy with a hoe. His bed were well-organised raised mounds with shallow trenches in between where he would walk along in his clogs, armed with a hoe, keeping a careful watch on weeds. 

Grow It! is proud to present a local screening of the award winning Food, Inc. film 7pm on Friday 7th October at Surf World, Torquay.  Local food, music and prizes! Check out the trailer.

By now we’re hoping you’ve had some success in your Grow It! veggie box and are ready to hit the kitchen.  You’ll soon discover produce based cooking is a little different to recipe based cooking.  But don’t stress...you’re in excellent hands with our Cook It! workshops.  Introducing Lindy Mills!

Missed out on the August soil workshop? KIM NEUBECKER wraps up the main points.

We had great fun at the last workshop, playing with dirt like little kids. We tested our own garden soil we had brought in for pH and texture.

pH is a measure of soils alkalinity or acidity. Soil that is too acid or too alkaline can cause nutrients to be bound up chemically, unable to be released, causing the plant to starve.

Ding! Ding! Here comes the silverbeet mobile! August’s big Grow It! event involved teaming up with the Surf Coast Energy Group for an evening of local food and thoughtful (and very funny) entertainment with Rod Quantock. 

In hindsight I may have been a tad naive thinking much of the evening’s menu could be sourced within 160km...

After a move to apartment living PATRICK BLAMPIED discovers gardening in shared spaces can have its benefits.

Late last year I moved into a block of apartments. My unit is modest two bedroom with a small balcony big enough to put the clothes horse on and not much else. This turned out to be a bigger shift in my living arrangement than I was expecting.

Missed out on the JULY workshop? KIM NEUBECKER wraps up the main points.

This month we discussed the types of vegetables that best suit our climate here in the foothills of the Otway Ranges. We then did a planning exercise where we roughly drew our own garden spaces to plan our growing areas. Within these spaces we tried to incorporate microclimates that help to maximise the conditions we can provide to grow food.

I explained that it is the combination of daylight hours and temperature that makes the difference between being able to grow vegetables in different seasons.

Bronwyn’s winning entry included the photograph on the left and the following: “Wow- we have just eaten our 1st broccoli and beetroot from our box. It’s our 1st try at being green thumbs and we’re stoked, it tastes like nothing we have ever had (and we’ve been vegetarian for 23 years!) So excited! And the lettuce is prolific. Who’d have thought that with your help and advice and good soil, and our love and water, we could actually grow plants! We’re addicted now. We just moved into a new house, now we are going to make the whole back yard edible! Thanks so much for your help and inspiration, we’re hooked (and hopefully soon be cutting!)” 

Congratulations Bronwyn! I’ll be dropping off your new Felcos shortly!